Please read if you know brakes!

[Clay350]

I am getting ready to replace my brakes and rotors. I think the previous owner drove like an idiot looking at my rotors and brake wear.

I am getting nice frozen rotors and some better pads. My knowledge of brakes stops beyond replacing pads and rotors.

Here is my question though. I am worried or have a suspicion that my back brakes are not doing enough. I know that the front brakes do 70% of the work.

I have zero brake dust in the back and a bunch in the front. The last time I had my car on a lift I put the car in gear at idle. With my foot on the brake fairly hard the rear tires were still moving? This is a problem right or am I just misunderstanding the brake system?

Clay

[doctahjones]

welcome to having a v8

but really i think that's just how the r51's are, especially the v8s. my parking brake will not hold mine stopped with it in gear, and i have to put quite a bit on the brake to keep it stopped when in gear. i mean it could be that my parking brake is really worn, but i can't imagine it's that far gone. i do want to try to adjust that parking brake deal inside the rotor in the rear to see if i can tighten it down some more though.

i've actually replaced my front rotors and pads, but didn't need to do either on the rear. before changing my front pads to a ceramic blend i did have quite a bit of dust on the fronts, but hardly any on the rears.

soooooo, to me it's just normal?

[disallow]

70/30 is about right for the ratio of front vs rear brakes.

[cgray]

I fought my parking brake for a while before I finally got it working correctly. Now I can park on a steep hill set the brake and it doesnt move anywhere. It can be fixed, but in my case it took about 5 trips to the dealer and yelling at them several times. There is a second secret adjustment that they magically found on the 5th trip back that fixed the problem. I forget exactly what it was, but if they tell you there is only one respond by telling them that they are a liar and go try again.

[Clay350]

I just want my rear brakes to do the 30% they are supposed to be doing. I am pretty sure right now they are doing next to nothing. I will have to look for that adjustment.

[smj999smj]

The rear brakes are a "hat style," like old Corvettes. The inner hub of the brake rotor serves as the drum for the parking brake shoes and they are adjustable, but they have no affect on the performance of the "regular" rear brakes. The "regular" rear brakes are disc type and there is no adjustment.

[Clay350]

Ya the parking brakes has no relation to the regular brakes.

So yesterday I was on a slick piece of ice. The car was idling and I was in gear. To my astonishment I was being pushed at idle while my foot was hard on the brake pedal. The fronts were locked up and the rear were just pushing away. I need to figure this out because my rear brakes are non-existent.

[Captain]

I would check the rear caliper, they might be frozen open.

[Mr Mayor]

Uh, Parking brake helps keep rear brakes in adjustment, no? Or am I thinking Drum only? Been a while..

If you need to replace. Try FROZENROTORS but avoid the HAWK pads, too dusty. They were a godsend for my 08

[smj999smj]

Uh, Parking brake helps keep rear brakes in adjustment, no? Or am I thinking Drum only? Been a while..

If you need to replace. Try FROZENROTORS but avoid the HAWK pads, too dusty. They were a godsend for my 08

On a "hat style" rear brake setup, the parking brake is cable operated and also not connected to the hydraulic brake setup in anyway, other than that they both share the same brake rotor. Even at that, they use different parts of the rotor; the hydraulic brake system uses the disc part of the rotor and the parking brake uses the inside hub as a "drum." In a Bendix or Kelsey-Hayes style drum setup commonly used on older vehicles, like the Nissan Hardbody trucks, the brake shoe adjusment will affect the parking brake adjustment as they both share operation of the brake shoes to accomplish their braking.

[Clay350]

I got all new frozen rotors and new pads.

[Mr Mayor]

@SMJ, thanku for educate!
@Clay, you won't be dissapointed... I beat the tar out of my Frozen rotors and they were always perfect! (My hawk pads were too dusty for my liking though...I forget what I replaced them with though... )

MM

[smj999smj]

My 06 LE had genuine Nissan front and rear pads (which are made by Hitachi) installed by the dealer when I purchased it last year and I have a recurring squeeking issue with the front brakes. I've taken them apart, cleaned and lubed the pad contacts and shims with PBC grease (as Nissan instructs) and it lasted for awhile, but the squeek came back when braking. Linings are still like new.

For an 08 SE, I installed two Wagner front rotors and front and rear sets of Akebono Ceramic ACT brake pads which I got from Rockauto.com. Akebono has been an OEM supplier of brakes to Nissan for decades and the pads come with new hardware and grease. They've performed at least as good as the genuine Nissan pads and have had no noise issues so far, even with more miles on them, and they were half the price of the genuine Nissan pads. I would definately use them again!